Team Qatar win first ever Olympic gold medal

Team Qatar tonight celebrated their first ever Olympic gold medal as Fares Ibrahim Elbakh won gold in  the men’s 96kg weightlifting and set two new Olympic records in the process.

The Qatari broke an Olympic record with a combined lift of 402 kg as well as with his 225kg clean and jerk lift. He lifted 177kg in the snatch. Elbakh attempted a world record 232kg clean and jerk but was not able to complete the lift.

“I feel great, incredible. We worked hard for it. We went so far to get this and it feels better than ever,” El-Bakh said after collecting his gold medal.”

“I am literally speechless about that [getting the first gold for Qatar],” El-Bakh added. “I hope that they are proud of me. I promise this is not the end, we still have more and more coming soon. We will do our best to make it even better.”

Venezuela’s Keydomar Giovanni Vallenilla Sanchez won silver with a combined lift of 387kg and Georgia’s Anton Pliesnoi won bronze after also scoring 387kg but losing out on tie-breaking criteria.